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http://www.sharemypair.com/smpweb/smpviewdetails/feed_id/32553
Above is a link to the hand I’m about to describe. It was a 5/10 game at Bellagio early in the morning. I wasn’t even planning on playing 5/10, I was just there to hang out with a buddy when two guys who had just been playing table games show up with martinis in hand. I jumped in after they took their seats.
One of the players was doing some crazy things. He was bluffing post flop fairly often and 3-bet shoving for $1500 w 99 and TT after people would open for $30 or $40. He did it one other time but I didn’t see what he had since no one called. I imagine if he had 99+ he was 3-bet shoving.
I want to get involved in a hand with him. I’m in the HJ w Q6dd. Up to this point I had been playing pretty tight and straight-forward. I had a good image. I raise to $40 since the rec player I’m interested in playing against is in the big blind and hasn’t folded once all morning. The CO calls then it folds to the big blind who raises to $120. It’s only $80 more and we’re pretty deep. I call. The CO also calls.
The flop comes QT9r. We’ve got a backdoor flush to go along with our top pair. The big blind leads for $180. I can’t see how I could fold at this point. I call. The CO fortunately folds.
We’re now heads up and the turn is another T. The big blind bets $600. It’s a really big bet. If he had a legitimate 3-bet hand preflop then the T shouldn’t have connected with his hand and he should be afraid of it since I should have more T’s in my range than him. The only T he should be 3-betting for value preflop would be TT and there’s only one combo of that. We can somewhat safely rule that out since he wouldn’t try to scare me off my hand if he had quads and we’ve already seen him 3-bet shove with 99 and TT in other hands preflop.
I think it’s most likely that he has a J or maybe picked up a flush draw. He has no concept of which hands to 3-bet with, which hands not to, or how much to 3-bet. He could really have anything at this point. I call the $600.
The river is another 9. The opponent looks at me and I felt he was doing it to see if I looked scared or didn’t like the river card. Generally I’ve seen this look when people don’t have much and are considering whether or not to fire another bullet as a bluff. He pretty quickly goes all in. I call for $1300 and he says that he doesn’t have anything. I turn over the Q6dd and it’s good. He said he had a Jack. I’m not sure what he had to go along with it or if he really had one at all. AJ is the only holding that is somewhat reasonable that doesn’t have me beat.
I certainly could’ve lost and it would’ve been embarrassing to get stacked with Q6dd. There were a few factors that led me to call down. I had seen him bluff. The hands he was repping didn’t make a ton of sense. At first he’s repping an over pair, set, or maybe KJ for the straight. Then the board pairs on the turn. With overpairs and straights you’d think he might slowdown especially since my normal 3-bet calling range is going to crush a QT9T board. Also, with boats he’d probably bet smaller to keep me in there with draws. By the time the river comes out, he’s only repping pocket Queens or combos containing a T. Straights are going to shut down completely, or certainly won’t jam at least. If he had a straight or flush draw those all missed. Given what I had seen from him early in the session, how big the pot was, and the feeling I got when he snap shoved the river after making eye contact with me, I closed my eyes and threw in a chip. Luckily I was correct and took down a $4500 pot.
Let me know what your thoughts are.
Wow, tough spot. I watched the hand a few times, analyzed myself before reading your analysis and shared a very similar line of thinking to yours. J-X makes a whole lot of sense… but its still scary.. If he really just likes the power/rush of 3 betting then that means his range is wide open right? I really like you train of thought here because you’re not going too many steps ahead of your opponents thought process, and it proved to be accurate. The scary part for me in these spots against these players who can show up with anything is that after certain amount of thinking it becomes a “am i ready to ride a rollercoaster tonight?”…. most often the answer is yes until i am on my 4th buy in. Just wondering if you takes this same line with K-J?
Lol, I know what you mean man. It’s definitely scary. It’s tough from the flop because he’s going to have outs a lot of times so you not only have to be correct that he’s bluffing but you also have to fade cards. I probably would take this same line with KJ. It’s good to let him keep bluffing so I definitely wouldn’t raise flop. I would consider raising turn.
Lol, I know what you mean man. It’s definitely scary. It’s tough from the flop because he’s going to have outs a lot of times so you not only have to be correct that he’s bluffing but you also have to fade cards. I probably would take this same line with KJ. It’s good to let him keep bluffing so I definitely wouldn’t raise flop. I would consider raising turn.
I think this is a classic case of playing the player. he didn’t realize that you wouldnt make those calls w/o connecting w/the flop somehow – He was only thinking of his own holdings
I imagine one of the best things about being a pro in Vegas is the occasional EXTREMELY wealthy whales. Based on your description of his play, if this had been a 25-50 cent $100 cap home game, we all probably make the river call based on his tendencies. The thing is, he could easily be rich enough that $3000 is the same as $100 is to the rest of us. Seems like the trick is to disconnect yourself from the stakes and play the player. Great job Brad!!
I’m curious though… You seem like you have a decent grip on handling the swings that go with professional poker and thank you for being so honest with all of your ups and downs (including the occasional mistake). But even so, I can remember several times where you mentioned that tilt/being stuck crept into your decision making. Do you think that if he actually had “it” and you lost the pot, it might have dented your emotional armor?
How big a factor would you say tilt control is for making a poker career viable?
Seems like some personalities might run too hot and cold to succeed.Example:
Player 1 has an elite “A” game, but often plays his “D” game or worse depending on mood.
Player 2 isn’t as accomplished, but can maintain a winning “B” type of game for months.I think tilt control is very important but it’s hard to say exactly how important it is. It depends on a variety of different factors. If your A game is super good then you can tilt hard and often and still make it. If you’re not that great then you have to manage your emotions better. Usually the really good players are the ones who are also good at managing their emotions anyway. One exception that comes to mind would be Hellmuth.
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